The present study aims to investigate the production of the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ of Saudi Arabian speakers of English in view of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. The linguistic aspect focuses on the role of the position of the sound in words, initial and final, and the distribution of errors per word in view of more and less familiar words. The extra-linguistic factors include participants' lengths of stay in the US and their ages and the potential influence these may have on the accuracy of pronouncing the target sound /v/. The total number of the subjects is 20 (10 male and 10 female), and their ages range between 20 and 35, with Mean age 27. Data is elicited through participants' reading of a word list with the target sound in initial and final position. The data coding is performed through spectrographic analysis and rater judgments. The analysis employs descriptive statistics, a dependent t-test used to compare production errors between initial and final position, and correlation analyses through which subjects' length of stay in the US and age are correlated with their total number of errors in both word positions. The findings show that word-final position is more difficult in pronouncing the phoneme /v/ than word-initial position. In addition, when the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ is mispronounced, it is substituted with the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/. Also, the correlation analysis shows that the longer the subjects have stayed in the USA, the more accurate their pronunciation of the target sound is (and vice versa). A significant correlation is also found between age and accuracy of pronunciation, as the younger subjects have more accurate pronunciation. The results of this study provide empirical evidence in support of several language acquisition theories, such as Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (Lado, 1957), Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) and Language Transfer Theory (Gass & Selinker, 1994), all of which claim the influence of learners' first language on their second language. In the context of this study, the substitution of the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ with its voiceless counterpart /f/ can be attributed to the fact that /f/ is the only labiodental fricative phoneme in the Arabic language.

abstract: The recent spotlight on concussion has illuminated deficits in the current standard of care with regard to addressing acute and persistent cognitive signs and symptoms of mild brain injury. This stems, in part, from the diffuse nature of the injury, which tends not to produce focal cognitive or behavioral deficits that are easily identified or tracked. Indeed it has been shown that patients with enduring symptoms have difficulty describing their problems; therefore, there is an urgent need for a sensitive measure of brain activity that corresponds with higher order cognitive processing. The development of a neurophysiological metric that maps to clinical resolution would inform decisions about diagnosis and prognosis, including the need for clinical intervention to address cognitive deficits. The literature suggests the need for assessment of concussion under cognitively demanding tasks. Here, a joint behavioral- high-density electroencephalography (EEG) paradigm was employed. This allows for the examination of cortical activity patterns during speech comprehension at various levels of degradation in a sentence verification task, imposing the need for higher-order cognitive processes. Eight participants with concussion listened to true-false sentences produced with either moderately to highly intelligible noise-vocoders. Behavioral data were simultaneously collected. The analysis of cortical activation patterns included 1) the examination of event-related potentials, including latency and source localization, and 2) measures of frequency spectra and associated power. Individual performance patterns were assessed during acute injury and a return visit several months following injury. Results demonstrate a combination of task-related electrophysiology measures correspond to changes in task performance during the course of recovery. Further, a discriminant function analysis suggests EEG measures are more sensitive than behavioral measures in distinguishing between individuals with concussion and healthy controls at both injury and recovery, suggesting the robustness of neurophysiological measures during a cognitively demanding task to both injury and persisting pathophysiology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Speech and Hearing Science 2014

A new objective measurement system to predict speech intelligibility in binaural listening conditions is proposed for use with nonlinear hearing devices. Digital processing inside such devices often involves nonlinear operations such as clipping, compression, and noise reduction algorithms. Standard objective measures such as the Articulation Indeix (AI), the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) and the Speech Transmission Index (STI) have been developed for monaural listening. Binaural extensions of these measures have been proposed in the literature, essentially consisting of a binaural pre-processing stage followed by monaural intelligibility prediction using the better ear or the binaurally enhanced signal. In this work, a three-stage extension of the binaural SII approach is proposed that deals with nonlinear acoustic input signals. The reference-based model operates as follows: (1) a stage to deal with nonlinear processing based on a signal-separation model to recover estimates of speech, noise and distortion signals at the output of hearing devices; (2) a binaural processing stage using the Equalization-Cancellation (EC) model; and (3) a stage for intelligibility prediction using the SII or the short-time Extended SII (ESII). Multiple versions of the model have been developed and tested for use with hearing devices. A software simulator is used to perform hearing-device processing under various binaural listening conditions. Details of the modeling procedure are discussed along with an experimental framework for collecting subjective intelligibility data. In the absence of hearing-device processing, the model successfully predicts speech intelligibility in all spatial configurations considered. Varying levels of success were obtained using two simple distortion modeling approaches with different distortion mechanisms. Future refinements to the model are proposed based on the results discussed in this work.

Orientador: Stelamaris Rolla Bertoli / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T04:56:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Smiderle_Roberta_M.pdf: 26489976 bytes, checksum: 44609708b319cf198f5a0772379f7c32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A inteligibilidade acústica se faz necessária para várias finalidades em diferentes tipos de ambientes. Dentre esses ambientes as igrejas católicas são locais com ampla variedade de atividades relacionadas à fala e música que requerem inteligibilidade acústica adequada. O comportamento acústico de igrejas é um tema que vem sendo estudado há algum tempo devido ao fato de serem ambientes que agregam diferentes tipos de eventos, missa, culto, palestras, concertos e outras atividades relacionadas ou não à religião, exigindo estudos que levem em conta essa flexibilidade. Ao longo da História do catolicismo, a Igreja, como instituição, passou por diversas mudanças que modificaram o modo como à celebração deveria ser conduzida e também os tipos de atividades, alterando o desempenho acústico requerido nos edifícios. Baseado nessas premissas verifica-se que a qualidade acústica de tais ambientes é de complexa variabilidade. Nesta dissertação foram avaliadas acusticamente seis igrejas católicas na cidade de Campinas, a Basílica Nossa Senhora do Carmo, Catedral Metropolitana de Campinas Nossa Senhora da Imaculada Conceição, Igreja de Sant'Ana, Igreja de Nossa Senhora das Dores, Igreja de Santa Rita de Cássia e Igreja de São Paulo Apóstolo. As igrejas avaliadas não foram escolhidas aleatoriamente, mas escolhidas em relação ao período de construção e a tipologia arquitetônica de cada uma das igrejas. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar o desempenho acústico das igrejas considerando as diversas combinações de fontes e receptores sonoros que podem ocorrer no interior da edificação, e buscar relacionar o desempenho acústico com suas características arquitetônicas. A avaliação acústica das igrejas foi feita por meio da análise dos resultados da medição dos parâmetros acústicos Tempo de Reverberação (TR), Tempo de Decaimento Inicial (EDT), Clareza (C80), Definição (D50) e Índice de Transmissão da Fala (STI). Os procedimentos das medições acústicas foram feitas baseadas na norma ISO 3382-1:2009, considerando que os edifícios podem ser considerados como ambientes de performance de acordo com a tipologia e uso, garantindo que os dados obtidos sejam passíveis a comparações em análises com outros estudos. Os resultados obtidos foram analisados de acordo com padrões propostos na literatura para avaliação de desempenho acústico qualificando o comportamento acústico das igrejas para as atividades desenvolvidas em cada uma delas. Tais resultados demonstraram, em grande maioria, que as igrejas estudadas apresentam parâmetros acústicos de valores inadequados para as atividades desenvolvidas hoje em dia. No entanto, têm-se também em alguns casos, parâmetros adequados a situações específicas, como na Catedral, onde a fonte de orquestra, posicionada sob a cúpula apresenta excelentes valores de Clareza, qualidade de valores também alcançados pelas igrejas de São Paulo Apóstolo e Sant'Ana em posições de coro original. Muito dos reposicionamentos de fonte sonora ocorridos no interior das igrejas, de acordo com as novas atividades, apresentou valores inferiores aos medidos em posição original, como se pode perceber na igreja de Nossa Senhora das Dores e na Basílica do Carmo, nas quais as novas posições de coro têm parâmetros acústicos com valores inferiores aos adequados à Clareza. Este estudo trouxe como contribuição o levantamento das características acústicas dessas igrejas, tornando possível a análise e comparação dos dados obtidos com relação a trabalhos posteriores. Sendo possível analisar não apenas os valores para os parâmetros acústicos avaliados, mas também como as características da arquitetura de cada edificação fizeram com que o comportamento acústico se desenvolvesse de tal modo no interior das igrejas / Abstract: Acoustic Intelligibility is one of the great important subjects for the performance of many environments such as catholic churches. Such places are used for many types of performances requiring adequate intelligibility for speech and clarity for music. The acoustic performance of worship places has been studied for a while because such places can accommodate not only religious events but also different kinds of events related or not to religion. Along Catholicism history, the church as an institution has been changing over the years the procedure of its rituals such as the mass and opening their temples to other kinds of performances making the acoustic performance of such environments require great deal of complexity. This research analyzed six catholic churches in the city of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Churches were chosen according its period of construction and architectural typology. The objective of this research is to study the acoustic performance of these churches and establish a relationship with the architectural characteristics of the temple. Measurement of acoustic parameters such as Reverberation Time (RT), Early Decay Time (EDT), Clarity Index (C80), Definition (D50) and Speech Transmission Index (STI) were used to analyze the acoustic performance of the churches. Measurements were done according to ISO 3382-1:2009. Churches can be considered performance spaces due to its broader possibilities of use, making it possible to compare its data with other similar researches. Results were also analyzed according to procedures specifically proposed for those spaces found in the literature making it possible to qualify the acoustic behavior of churches for each specific use and allowing further studies and comparisons / Mestrado / Arquitetura e Construção / Mestra em Engenharia Civil

In this thesis, I take a closer look at the meaning of life from an eschatological point of view. More precisely, the question at hand is whether and in what sense the existence of Hell would impact the meaning of life. The thesis primarily makes use of Joshua Seachris’s theories on what ‘the meaning of life’ denotes, dividing ‘meaning’ up into the subcategories of ‘intelligibility’, ‘purpose’, and ‘significance’. Three different answers to the research question are proposed, which crystallizes three different positions: Hell-optimism, which denotes the view that the existence of Hell would contribute to the meaning of life; Hell-neutralism, which denotes the view that the existence of Hell would have no effect on the meaning of life; and Hell-pessimism, which denotes the view that the existence of Hell would detract from the meaning of life. Arguments are given for each position, most appropriated from the broader meaning of life-discourse. On the basis of the evaluation of each argument, Hell-pessimism is considered the most probable of the three.

The purpose of this investigation was to measure the ability of young normal hearing listeners to perceive speech in the presence of a background noise which varies in the relative intensity of its semantic content. The Speech Perception in Noise test was mixed with a two-component competing noise complex in which the narrative-to- speech noise ratio varied in 2 dB increments from -2 dB Na/SpN to +8 dB Na/SpN. These stimuli were presented at an overall +8 dB signal-to-noise ratio to thirty young normal hearing adults through the soundfield system. The differences between the mean error scores and standard deviations for the low predictability sentences were found to be statistically significant at all Na/SpN ratios. No main effect was observed for the Na/SpN ratios on the high predictability sentences. Significant differences were also observed between the mean error scores and standard deviations of HP and LP pairs at each Na/SpN ratio. These data further revealed a systematic increase in LP mean error scores and standard deviations as a result of linear increases in the Na/SpN ratio. These results suggest that semantically loaded competing noise significantly influences the perception of primary messages as a direct function of the competition ratio.

This study sought to determine the basic intelligibility of synthesized speech as produced by the HC 120 Phonic Mirror Handivoice. It involved 48 male and female subjects divided into two groups. Group 1 had 40 subjects ranging in age from 18 to 44 years. Group 2 had eight subjects ranging in age from 18 to 33 years. All subjects were screened for normal hearing. Testing for normal hearing was done in an audiological suite at Portland State University. The study was designed to determine the degree to which a group of normal hearing college students could recognize words and phrases as produced by the HC 120 Phonic Mirror Handivoice.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(工学) / 乙第13091号 / 論工博第4152号 / 新制||工||1675(附属図書館) / (主査)教授 髙橋 大弐, 教授 原田 和典, 教授 竹脇 出 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an auditor's past musical training and experience on the intelligibility of selected vowel sounds at differential pitch levels. The specific problems of the study were to investigate the effects of extensive vocal music training, extensive non-vocal music training, and limited or no music training on an auditor's ability to discriminate accurately selected vowel sounds performed at various pitch levels. The effects of pitch and vowel sound on auditor recognition of vowel sounds in singing and the ability of each singer to be intelligible to auditors was also investigated.

Prosody plays an important role in speech communication. Many individuals with motor speech disorders have decreased prosodic control and thus lower overall intelligibility. Few studies have examined the effect of a flattened prosodic contour on the intelligibility of dysarthric speech, and little is known about the role that listener gender plays in understanding disordered speech. The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact of artificial prosodic manipulation on the intelligibility of dysarthric speech as a function of the extent of fundamental frequency (F0) contour flattening. A further goal was to examine the influence of listener gender on intelligibility. Speech recordings from two speakers (one with mild dysarthria and one with severe dysarthria) were synthetically altered by reducing F0 variability by 50%, 75%, and 100%. Fifty listeners transcribed the sentences and rated the perceived difficulty of the task. Results of the study indicated that a flattened F0 contour led to decreases in the intelligibility of both speakers with dysarthria, both in terms of transcription accuracy and ratings of listener confidence. All altered conditions resulted in poorer intelligibility than the unaltered utterances. For the mild speaker, scores and ratings decreased predictably in proportion to the extent of F0 flattening, whereas for the severe speaker, there was not a steady decrease in intelligibility as the F0 was progressively flattened. The utterances were more intelligible to female than male listeners.